转载关于irc（国际回邮券）的信息。
这是昨天upu万国邮政联盟发布的信息。每年发行220万张的irc将在今年7月1日后在70个国家
率先发售2006年新版（有些国家的发行期稍晚一些，如日本是9月1日后发行），明年将是irc诞生100周年，
新发行的将会有一个新式样（叫做beijing model 2！），邮票兑换截至期为2009年12月31日。
附注：如我们早就知道的那样，2002年发行的irc将在今年12月31日后不被接受兑换。转载：
subject:
re: new irc
from:
"bi.info" <info@upu.int>
date:
tue, 27 jun 2006 08
41 +0200
here is an article that will be published in one week time about the new irc and that will reply to your questions:
turning 100 with a new look
the international reply coupon (irc) is getting a makeover. two fingers about to touch, framed in a postage stamp - this image inspired by the famous michelangelo work adorning the sistine chapel ceiling symbolizes the notions of com-munication and exchange that the international reply coupon represents. this image appears on the postal product which will celebrate its cen-tenary next year.
in a competition organized by the upu interna-tional bureau to find a design for the new irc, the work submitted by ukraine was selected from among those of 15 other participating posts. the 40 member countries of the postal operations council made their choice during an official vote taken on 6 april.
the artist who submitted the winning entry,
volodymyr taran, is a graduate of the kiev poly-technic institute. a graphic artist by profession,
taran has illustrated numerous children's books and has helped design film strips. he also paints and designs interiors and furniture. his recent il-lustrations for coins earned him two consecutive prizes from the international coin design com-petition held in japan. in response to the compe-tition's theme "the postage stamp - a vehicle for communication", the ukrainian artist found his inspiration in the work of michelangelo.
the new reply coupon, called beijing model no. 2, will be sold commercially in more than 70 countries from 1 july 2006, and will be ex-changeable up to 31 december 2009 in all un-ion member countries.
a little history
according to the latest figures, 2.2 million of these postal instruments, exchangeable for one or more postage stamps, are sold every year worldwide. but where did the coupon originate?
as far back as the end of the 19th century, a recurrent question was how to prepay postage in order to ensure a correspondent's reply. postal stationery accompanied by a paid reply was one solution, but it was valid only for the domestic service and limited to a few lines of correspon-dence on the envelope or card. an international solution was needed whereby a reply coupon could be exchanged for a postage stamp in the post office of a foreign country.
and so it was decided by the 1906 rome congress to create the irc, exchangeable at the time for postage stamps to the value of 25 gold centimes in member countries that had signed the relevant agreement.
over the years, successive congresses de-bated at length such issues as coupon's period of validity and minimum selling price, as well as the concept of exchanging postage stamps, but it was not until 1974 that countries agreed on the coupon as a standard postal instrument, the wording of the text printed on it and the coupon's value set at one gold franc. in 1994, its ex-change value was set in special drawing rights, an international monetary instrument based on a basket of currencies. nevertheless, each country determines its own selling price based on the postage for an ordinary 20-gramme airmail letter sent abroad.
changes in 1999
the actual coupon and its watermark have also changed. the fine white watermarked hemp fi-ber has been replaced by a traditional, more ro-bust paper that can be mechanically processed. the watermark was originally made with a dandy roll, then later printed using a plate process. the hemisphere and pigeon symbols, designed by grasset for the first illustration, were used until the adoption of the beijing model no. 1 in 1999. since then, the irc has undergone an even greater makeover, including a different colour to distinguish it from the old series, a larger size (148 x 103 mm), a upu hologram for greater security and a new slogan: "la lettre, une voie vers l'alphabétisation" (the letter - a path to lit-eracy). also printed on the coupon are the name of the country of origin and a upu standard bar-code containing the iso country code, the date of printing and the selling price set by the inter-national bureau. this model will be sold until 31 august 2006, with the deadline for exchange set at 31 december 2006.
soon to be 100
the irc will celebrate its centenary in 2007. it was on 1 october 1907 that the international bu-reau issued the first international reply coupon. to mark this event, countries can ask the inter-national bureau to include a special overprint that reads "1907-2007: 100 years of ircs"! col-lectors, philatelists and future buyers will appre-ciate this added feature. the coupon is certain to be a popular collector's item at post offices next year.
regards
j. deutschmann
www.upu.int
